Spacecraft for communications and broadcast services can operate in orbit to communicate with a user terminal (or ground device/terminal) by ways of a forward user downlink signal (transmitted by the spacecraft) and a return user uplink signal (transmitted by the user terminal) that communicatively couple the user terminal and the spacecraft. A forward gateway uplink signal and a return gateway downlink signal communicatively couple gateway stations and the spacecraft, so that terminals get two-way access to network services providers via spacecraft and gateway stations. Spacecraft may use an on-board digital processing communication payload or a transparent bent-pipe payload, and multibeam antennas, providing multibeam coverage for terminals.
The payload systems for such spacecraft may include a number of sensors or antenna feeds and a number of communication processing channels including components such as low noise amplifiers (LNAs), frequency down/up converters, filters, etc., as in a return user uplink receive section of the payload, Access to different communication processing channels should be configurable. For example, certain sensors should be connected to communication processing channels per operational requirements with a changing frequency-beam plan, only parts of the antenna feeds need to access the communication processing channels, or the configuration may change with the operational requirements of the spacecraft. The payload systems can also include a number of redundant communication processing channels and components to protect the payload operations from component failures. Both access and redundancy protection (for communication processing channels) are useful in multibeam spacecraft systems where the number of antenna feeds could be very large and the access to a number of communication processing channels can change from time-to-time. In a forward user downlink transmit section of the payload, similar requirements can be expressed for a larger number of transmit feeds to connect to a number of processing channel including HPAs (High Power Amplifier). A certain subset of transmit feeds may need to be connect to the HPAs in a time period, and in other time periods, different subsets of feeds should be connected to the HPAs, and so on, per operational requirements with a changing frequency-beam, and traffic connectivity plan.
A substantial number of switches are necessary to enable the redundancy protection, and also facilitate switching between alternate communication processing channels in cases of device failure. Thus, efficient solutions need to be developed to meet both access and redundancy protection requirements.